Author: Bill Grossman
Artist: Kevin Hawkes
Genre: Humor / Animals / Surrealism / Numbers
Year Published: 1996
Year Read: 2017
Source: Library
Content Rating: Ages 5+ (Some Suggestive Behavior)
Buy on: Amazon // Book Depository
Now I have read a couple of children’s books where the
characters in question for some bizarre reason want to eat strange things such
as in “There Was An Old Lady Who
Swallowed a Fly” where the old lady spent most of the book eating various
animals she comes across to. Well, “My Little Sister Ate One Hare” which
is written by Bill Grossman along
with illustrations by Kevin Hawkes
is pretty much a similar story that is just as crazy as “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly!”
This story is basically about a young girl who is the
titular “little sister” being able to eat various animals which includes one
hare, two snakes, three ants, four shrews, five bats, six mice, seven polliwogs
and so on and so forth. Then, when the
little sister tried to eat ten peas…
Can
the little sister eat the ten peas and what will happen once she does?
Read
this book to find out!
Now, when I first saw this book, I will admit that I
was a little curious to see what this book was all about (especially with the
image of a little girl eating the hare on the cover grabbing my
attention). So, when I finally picked this
book up, I was having a great time reading this really bizarre yet hilarious
story! Bill Grossman has done an excellent job at writing this story as
the story is both hilarious and creative to read and I really enjoyed the
scenes where we see the little sister eating various animals such as shrews,
bats, polliwogs, and ants while performing these acts on a theater stage. I like the fact that the little sister
dressing up as various characters such as a magician and a snake charmer while
she is eating the animals added a certain flair to the story as it makes seem
like the little sister is in a stage performance while she is performing these
tricks to the audience. Kevin Hawkes’ artwork is extremely
comedic and exaggerated as we see various shots of the little sister’s mouth
going extremely wide as she is about to eat an animal character and it was
entertaining seeing these images pop out towards the audience in an
unconventional way! Probably my most
favorite images in this book are of the little sister dressing up in different
costumes such as a magician, a snake charmer, a pirate and a cat while she is
performing on stage as they give her performances even more creativity!
Parents should know that the scenes where the little
sister eats up the animals alive might either be too disturbing or too gross
for some small children to handle and they might want to read this book first
to see if their child can handle a book where the main character eats animals
alive.
Overall, “My
Little Sister Ate One Hare” is a hilarious and bizarre story that children
who love reading about characters who do weird activities will surely enjoy for
many years to follow! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up
since the scenes where the little sister eats various animals alive might
either scare or gross out some children.
